Royal Street

by Suzanne Johnson

  He searched my face. “You’re properly outraged, I see.”

  I’d always wondered if the fierce grip Gerry kept on his emotions was strength, a defense mechanism, or just a stiff British upper lip. Whatever, it was maddening. “What did you expect? That I’d be blasé about being lied to my whole life?”

  The staff, which I’d propped against the chair, emitted a burst of red sparks. It seemed to be channeling my anger.

  He stared at it, then looked back at me and smiled. “You have the gift of old magic, elven magic—more even than I’d hoped. You are like me, you know. You’re tough and resourceful and believe in fighting for your beliefs. You have your mother’s face, but you’re like me.”

  “I’m not like you.” My voice shook and I gripped the chair arms harder. “I haven’t betrayed the Elders. I haven’t put every wizard in New Orleans at risk. I haven’t sat by while innocent people were killed. Five men are dead, Gerry. Please tell me you didn’t know about that.”

  “I didn’t know at first, but concessions had to be made for Samedi to get the power he needed.”

  He wouldn’t meet my gaze. “No one else is at risk now. You’re only in danger if you keep trying to find me. I’m telling you again. Step away from it, let the Elders think I’m dead, and allow things to unfold.”

  God. He’d known about the murders. Five dead sons, brothers, fathers he’d seen as concessions. I had to make him understand his naïveté in thinking the killing was done.

  “Samedi plans to double-cross you,” I said. “He’s trying to bring me to him, and then he plans to kill us both.”

  Gerry laughed. “You have it wrong, love.” He leaned forward, excitement on his face. “Imagine what it will be like when this is over, when the Baron and I have opened the borders for everyone. The vampires and fae will back us; I’ve talked to their leaders. The Elders will be forced to cooperate. Just think of the world we can make with science and magic coexisting.”

  I shivered at his words. Who was this man? His idealism had blinded him, and I didn’t know how to get through. If he thought prete groups and humans could peacefully coexist in some mystical utopia, he was ignoring every lesson history had taught us.

  He moved his chair forward till our knees were touching, and took my hands. “Did I do too good a job drilling the Elders’ rules into you? Use your brain, girl. Think for yourself.”

  “Jean Lafitte said—”

  He released my hands and sat back in his chair. “Jean Lafitte would lie to the Pope if it gained him an advantage. Surely you’re not basing your ideas on anything said by that libertine?”

  I didn’t know what else to say. “Gerry, at least tell me where you are. If you’re here in New Orleans the Elders are going to find you.”

  He laughed, and that familiar sound tore into me like a knife. “The Elders won’t find me, and you need to stop trying. I’m sorry I waited too late to tell you I was your father in a proper way, but you have to let me go for now. We’ll have plenty of time to catch up when this is over. Samedi’s ready to make his move.”

  “Gerry, I—”

  “I’ll see you when this is over, DJ. Stay out of the Beyond.”

  I jerked awake, cold sweat beaded on my forehead. The bedside clock read three a.m., the witching hour. I sat up, still in my jeans and sweater, rehashing the conversation with Gerry. Why had he told me to stay out of the Beyond? Why would I even try to go into—

  Oh my God. No wonder Gerry was off radar, and why he was so sure the Elders couldn’t find him. He was in the Beyond, probably in Old Orleans. That had to be it. Why else would he mention it?

  All my life, I’d heard about the dangers of going over there. Physical magic wasn’t reliable outside the temporal world. Here, the wizards were the most powerful things around. There, we were just one more magical species in a world full of them. We weren’t even the largest group—the fae outnumbered us, I knew, and the vampires came close.

  I got up and tiptoed into the library, locking the door behind me. What should I tell Zrakovi?

  Curling up in an armchair, I thought about Gerry being my father, insisting I was like him. I’d denied it, but in some ways he was right. I’d always thought he was the impulsive one, but it hadn’t been Gerry who kept Louis Armstrong as a spy. He hadn’t tried to wrangle a deal with Jean Lafitte. The difference was, Gerry had crossed a line. He’d let people get killed. I couldn’t rid my mind of the gutted soldier lying on the muddy ground in Lakeview. Gerry had a hand in that.

  An iron band wrapped around my chest, squeezing, and every lungful of air took an effort. I had to talk to Zrakovi in a few hours. If I told him Gerry was in the Beyond, that he was still conspiring with Samedi, I’d be signing my father’s death warrant. If I kept quiet and the Elders didn’t figure it out on their own, I’d betray everything I believed in, everything Gerry had taught me to believe in.

  I wasn’t sure I could live with either option.

  THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2005 “The names of the first of Louisiana’s Hurricane Katrina victims to be identified were released Wednesday, but scores of victims may never be identified … . The 32 were the first of the 896 victims recovered so far to be identified by the state.”

  —THE TIMES–PICAYUNE

  CHAPTER 35

  I was still in the library with the door locked when Alex came looking for me about seven a.m. I’d done my grounding ritual twice. My mojo bags had been refilled with fresh herbs.

  He pounded on the door, and I ran to unlock it before he flattened it and I had to buy yet another one.

  “I hope you didn’t summon someone else while I was asleep.” He paced the room, wafting traces of sandalwood aftershave and soap and coffee behind him. My area rug was in its normal spot, but he lifted the edge to make sure I wasn’t trying to hide anything.

  I could hide a lot without moving a rug.

  “I didn’t summon anybody. I’ve just been up all night, thinking.”

  “Uh-oh.” He smiled then, and I knew I’d made the right decision.

  I patted his arm as I headed back to the sitting room. “Let me take a shower, then I’ll come down and tell you what I’ve been thinking about.”

  I covered the worst of my bruises in makeup again. If this kept up, I’d need stage makeup to give me better coverage.

  Alex had cooked breakfast—real eggs, bacon, toast. “Figured we’d need lots of protein to talk to Zrakovi this morning,” he said, handing me a plate.

  I didn’t have an appetite, but knew I needed to force it down. Last night’s dinner had been peanuts and bourbon. My diet wasn’t helping me cope.

  “So,” he said, sitting at the table with a pile of eggs the size of a softball, “were you up all night thinking about Gerry being your father?”

  “Sort of.” I bit off a bite of bacon and promptly spat it into a napkin. “What is that?”

  “Soy bacon. It’s good for you.”

  I was unsure about many things in my life, but I was fairly certain God did not intend bacon to be made from a plant.

  “Let me ask you a hypothetical question.” I set the vile bacon travesty aside and chewed on some toast. “If you had to choose between protecting someone you loved and doing what you thought was right, what would you do?”

  He put his fork down and frowned. “Why do I think this isn’t hypothetical?”

  I shrugged and took a sip of coffee, avoiding his eyes.

  He cleared his throat. “Well. I’m assuming, in your imaginary situation, that doing both isn’t an option. In other words, I can’t both protect my loved one and do the right thing.”

  I shook my head.

  He pushed the rest of his eggs around with his fork. “I’m not going to ask what you found out, or figured out. If you tell me, you know my loyalties lie with the Elders. You have to make your own decision, and I’ll do my best to support you.”

  “Even if I make the wrong decision?” Would he support me then?

  He gave up on breakfast a
nd put his fork down. “I’ll try.”

  I sighed. “I still have some thinking to do, and I need to call Tish.”

  I left Alex to clean up and went upstairs to ready the transport for Zrakovi. Then I made my call, telling Tish everything, start to finish. I could tell when she started to cry. I didn’t ask Tish if she knew Gerry was my father. All that had to be set aside for now, all the who-knew-what-and-when.

  She blew her nose, and I could visualize her squaring her shoulders. “I can’t tell you what to do, DJ. Gerry’s my one great love, but he’s wrong about this.”

  “If I tell the Elders, we’ll lose him.”

  She didn’t say anything. She didn’t have to. Either way, we’d already lost him.

  I checked the transport, and waited for Alex to join me. A few minutes before nine, with no Alex in sight, an image appeared in the transport and solidified into a short, slender man with pale, thinning hair in a stylish cut. Bright blue eyes studied me from above a prominent nose. I stared back at him. I didn’t know proper Elder etiquette. Should I kiss his ring? Genuflect? Somehow I thought Zrakovi would be older, taller.

  He raised his eyebrows and crossed his arms across his chest, rumpling the jacket of his conservative black suit. “Well?”

  Ack. Stupid. I’d created a closed transport, not an open one, so he couldn’t move until I broke the circle. I smudged it open with my foot.

  “In these times, you probably should have asked to see identification,” he said. “But the closed transport was a good idea.”

  “Well, a paranoid one. You never know who might show up these days.”

  He laughed.

  Willem Zrakovi walked around my library, nodding as he perused book titles and peered into shelves, scanning the long rows of neatly labeled glass containers.

  Alex wandered in with one of his foul protein drinks. He choked at the sight of the wizard, and collapsed in a fit of coughing.

  The wizard looked over his sizable nose and nodded. “Mr. Warin.”

  “Elder Zrakovi,” Alex croaked.

  Zrakovi turned back to me with a warm smile—he certainly beat the Speaker on people skills. “Forgive my manners, but I am always fascinated to see another wizard’s work space, especially of the Green Congress. Yours is most impressive. I am Willem Zrakovi. I apologize that we haven’t met in person earlier, but these are difficult times.”

  I pondered whether one should offer refreshments when entertaining wizarding royalty, but decided against it. He could afford his own snacks.

  “Elder Zrakovi.” I wasn’t sure how to begin, so I pointed to a seat. I’d take my cues from him.

  He looked out the window briefly before sitting in one of the library armchairs. I took the chair facing him and decided he must originally have been a Green Congress wizard himself. He wore an enormous emerald ring on his left ring finger. Jewelry’s a dead giveaway on a wizard. I’d have more emerald jewelry if I could afford it.

  He cleared his throat. “Drusilla, I understand you obtained some information both from summoning Marie Laveau and meeting with Jean Lafitte. You’ve been very busy.”

  Zrakovi didn’t know the half of it. “I’ve also gotten some additional information by doing a reconstruction of a transport I found in Gerry St. Simon’s house. And from a sort of lucid dream.” That sounded really stupid now that I’d said it aloud.

  He looked taken aback, and Alex stifled a smile from his perch atop my worktable.

  “Your mentor taught you to be creative in your magic use, I see,” Zrakovi said drily.

  I grimaced. “Look, sir, I know keeping Louis Armstrong as a spy was kind of unorthodox, but …”

  Zrakovi held up a hand to stop me. “I wasn’t referring to Mr. Armstrong. That was an unusual means of gathering information, but I thought it quite clever. Obviously, that tactic wouldn’t work with just any of the historical undead.”

  Zrakovi looked at me a few seconds before continuing. “Why don’t you tell me everything you’ve learned.”

  CHAPTER 36

  With a silent apology to Gerry and a prayer that I’d be able to live with my decision, I spilled my guts. About Gerry’s cheerful departure with Samedi in the transport. About Jean Lafitte’s contention that the vampires and fae were using Samedi as a stalking horse to test the waters in overthrowing the Elders. About the first two dreams in which Gerry and I had communicated. Even about the traveling elven staff.

  “And there was a third dream last night, which I initiated,” I said, glancing at Alex. He looked surprised, but nodded his encouragement. “Gerry is alive.”

  I stared out the window, seeing nothing, willing myself to stay calm and see this through. “He’s in the Beyond, I believe, probably in Old Orleans. He is still backing Samedi. I tried to warn him that he was going to be double-crossed but he didn’t believe me.”

  “Damned arrogant fool,” Zrakovi snapped, getting to his feet and beginning a rapid back-and-forth pace in front of the windows. “He wouldn’t try to work through channels, wouldn’t consider the idea he might be wrong. And Samedi. Of all the creatures to trust …”

  I waited, eyes on the floor. Even with a grounding and two mojo bags I felt the sizzle of Zrakovi’s anger.

  “Tell me about these dreams.” Zrakovi pulled his emotions under control and sat down again. I still wished I could move farther away from him, to escape his intensity.

  “I thought they were just dreams at first. Alex suspected they might not be. But last night, after I learned—” Did I want to even get into the daddy business? “After I learned some personal information about my relationship to Gerry, I decided to try and instigate another dream myself. And it worked.”

  “What did you find out about your and Gerry’s relationship?”

  I blinked. “Uh, that’s he’s my biological father. Did you know that?” Of course the Elders knew that. They wouldn’t have had my grandparents send me to Gerry at random.

  “I thought he’d have told you by now.” Zrakovi frowned and fiddled with his cuffs. I bet I knew what his poker tell would be. “I realize the personal cost of what you’re telling me. I admire your courage.”

  I looked at the rug, which had a spot on the corner that was coming unraveled. Courage. What a joke. I wanted to run out the library door and keep running.

  “So.” He got up and paced again. “As you suspected, you were not having dreams, Drusilla. Dream magic is an elven skill. A few Yellow Congress wizards can do it, but not many.”

  Alex and I exchanged startled looks and he tilted his head in the direction of the library door, where the elven staff had propped itself against the wall.

  “You have elven blood from both biological parents, which is rare,” Zrakovi said. “You’ve shown some skill at elven magic since you were a child. And now the staff.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what that means. We shall have to do some research.”

  I took a deep breath. “What do you know about Baron Samedi? Why does he want me?”

  “Like many of the gods in the Beyond who have fallen out of favor in modern society, Samedi resents his fading powers—voodoo has virtually become a tourist attraction in New Orleans, and the loa hate that. Samedi has been consigned to the Beyond for a long time now, and to come back, he has to build up his power with blood sacrifice. A wizard’s blood would be very attractive to him, especially a powerful wizard.”

  “But I’m not powerful.” I could barely handle a simple summoning. “I just don’t get it.”

  “It’s the elven connection,” Alex said. He’d been silent till now, but he hopped off the worktable and came to sit on the floor next to my chair. “That’s what he wants, isn’t it? Gerry can’t give him that.”

  “I think that’s probably true,” Zrakovi said. He walked back to the window and looked at the empty street for a few minutes.

  Finally, he returned to his chair. “I think you’ve rightly deduced that Gerry is still alive and in the Beyond. His magic wouldn’t work properly there,
so it’s a huge risk for him to take. He’s forfeiting most of his power, but it would allow him to help Samedi in secret.”

  I stared at the rug again.

  Zrakovi leaned forward so I’d have to look at him. “I’ve known Gerry a great many years, since long before you were born. He’s always hated that the Elders kept such rigid control over the Beyond. I have no doubt that in any agreement with Samedi, he thought he was doing the right thing. But what he has done is, in our world, unforgivable. You understand that, don’t you?”

  I pulled my legs up in the chair and wrapped my arms around my knees. “I do.”

  Alex was finding his shoelaces fascinating, but sensed me watching him. We locked gazes. He looked miserable. I only hoped if the Elders found Gerry, they wouldn’t make Alex be the one to kill him. Surely the Elders would do that deed themselves and not turn it over to an enforcer.

  “What happens next?” Alex’s voice was strained.

  “You do nothing,” Zrakovi answered. “Now that we know what is going on, let us handle it.”

  He stood, and Alex and I followed suit. “I’ll contact the full Congress of Elders to secure a warrant that will allow us to detain Samedi and strip him of his power, but it’s a political issue and will take a couple of days,” Zrakovi said. “If he is interested in you either as a pawn or a sacrifice, Drusilla, he will try to pull you to him. Stay where you are, behind your wards, and let us do our work.”

  “Excuse me, sir,” Alex asked. “But how long will it take the Elders to repair the damage between the Now and the Beyond?”

  Zrakovi sighed and shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re trying to monitor and repair hundreds of breaches along the Gulf Coast from the two hurricanes. In the meantime, we’re encountering resistance from many groups within the Beyond who see this as an opportunity to make inroads back into the mundane world. Now at least we know they’re trying to keep our attention away from Samedi and Gerry.” A trace of anger had returned to his voice.